Wednesday, March 15, 2006

the latest hype heading for court

I was just reading some wonderful thoughts over at L's place on the latest issue in court regarding whether or not a man can wiggle out of child support if he didn't want the child in the first place. This issue is so interesting I can't wait to see how it shakes out.

My personal opinion is the whole thing is crap. Just plain wrong. I don't believe for a minute that any man of reproductive age can have sex with a woman yet remain completely void of the knowledge that sex is the means of creating a child. I also don't believe for a minute that any man of reproductive age is unaware of the bizarre circumstances documented on a regular basis of birth control failing, women previously thought barren suddenly becoming pregnant, etc. It's just bullshit. Everybody knows those things happen. And, everybody knows that on occasion humans LIE, so even if it wasn't an occurrence with the likelihood of a snowball surviving in hell, he may have believed a line of crap she fed him. I don't even feel bad if that were the situation. He still took the chance.

I understand the argument that a woman can choose to keep a child despite a man's opposing wishes. I really do. But I don't agree with it. When a man argues his lack of choice in keeping cells containing half his DNA multiplying in a woman's uterus, he's forgetting that he had the CHOICE to put his sperm there in the first place. It was a choice to take the risk that it would result in a pregnancy. It was a CHOICE. And he made it. Just as she made the choice to risk becoming pregnant and being faced with important decisions to make, including the possibility of birthing and caring for a child.

I sympathize with the frustration, shock, and all other emotions that likely hit a man when he finds out he's caused a completely unintended pregnancy, but if he was man enough to have sex, he's man enough to deal with the emotions and deal with the situation before 9 months have passed.

No documentation exists to my knowledge of a man ever legally gaining power to force a woman to abort a child. It's never happened. So I'm thinkin it shouldn't be a sudden shock to the male human population that they don't have the power to reverse a previous decision made to deposit semen. Duh.

And while I'm at it, I do think it's a terrible injustice that a woman can choose an abortion if a man opposes it. It's his child too. If he can't force the abortion, she shouldn't be able to either.

But since she CAN choose to keep or discard a fetus, and he can't, this case might have some merit in court. I can't wait to see what happens.

Now of course, there is one rare exception that I really do agree that a man should be able to get relief from support payments... If a man is raped by a woman, which does happen, then I don't think he should be held responsible for a resultant child. However, the flipside stands too... As L so eloquently pointed out, if a 12 year old is raped, she should not be forced to carry the child. Rape is a very significant exception to all rules here.

Thoughts? Opposing or otherwise?

1 Comments:

Blogger Lei said...

Actually, I agree with you. I haven't been following the case, but you've peaked my interest. Amazing what lengths some will go to to change what they cannot. Hmmm... thanks for making me think! And thanks for stopping by.

Wed Mar 15, 09:52:00 PM GMT-5  

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